February Martinez Mayor's Message

Jan 30, 2017 08:15AM
● By Rob Schroder

Rob Schroder, Mayor of Martinez

City Crews Respond to
Downtown Flooding

Just a little over a week into the New Year and Martinez experienced
its first flood in a decade. After days and days of heavy rains saturating the surrounding
hills and several king tides, Alhambra Creek surpassed its capacity to drain
the watershed and overflowed its banks near the D Street/Shell Avenue Bridge
near the Teamsters Building.

The overflow found its natural flow point surging down
Castro Street and Alhambra Avenue towards downtown and the Martinez Waterfront.
The runoff from the hills to the east and west joined the newly formed rivers,
leaving behind a layer of mud and gravel in the neighborhoods it passed
through.

Once the water arrived in the downtown area, some water turned
left at Main Street, flooding the 500, 600 and 700 blocks. The rest continued
down to the Waterfront and spilled back into Alhambra Creek at Marina Vista and
the city maintenance yard.

Most downtown homeowners, business and property owners
were prepared with plywood, plastic, and sandbags to block doors and other
openings in their buildings. After the water receded, it left behind a mess of mud,
gravel, and debris.

City crews worked all night and into the early morning to
control the rising waters and direct them out to the river. They immediately
started the clean-up and returned early the next day to make sure the downtown
was free of mud and businesses could open. Unfortunately, the inundation
damaged some underground electrical equipment, and only minor electrical power
was available until PG&E crews could make the needed repairs later in the
evening.

After finishing
the downtown, cleanup crews moved into neighborhoods throughout the city to do the same.
Crews scooped up mud and debris into trucks, fire hoses washed down sidewalks,
and street sweepers
made passes back and forth to clean the asphalt.

It took
about a week of long hours and hard, backbreaking work to recover from the
flood of 2017,which is amazing
considering the size of the area to be cleaned and the amount of mud and debris
that was removed.

Because the
city was prepared with preventative maintenance of storm drains, removal of obstructions in Alhambra
Creek, and a plan to deal with the possibility of flooding, damage was kept to
a minimum, and
cleanup was efficient and well organized.

I have been
asked why there was a flood at all since the city spent millions of dollars on
a downtown flood
control project that runs from Ward Street to the Carquinez Straits. The answer
is that the improvements
did what they were designed to do: carry water from the downtown out to the
river. Downtown
flooded this year because of the overflow that occurred at D Street and Shell
Avenue, over a mile
upstream.

The rain has
been a welcome gift after so many years of drought, but hopefully, we will
continue to have moderate
rain, with breaks for a few days here and there.